The much-hyped Great Wealth Transfer, in which as much as $124 trillion in baby-boomer wealth is predicted to move on to younger generations, has captivated Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. But Tim Gerend, CEO of financial planning giant Northwestern Mutual which has $366 billion in client assets, warns that the reality will unfold more gradually and with greater complexity than headlines and hopes suggest.
“I think the wealth transfer isn’t going to be just a big bang,” Gerend told Fortune. “It’s not like, we just passed peak age 65 and now all the money is going to move.”
The reason is simple. People are living longer, and women generally outlive men, a trend that Northwestern Mutual tracks closely in its mortality tables. The Milwaukee-based mutual company is the largest provider of individual life insurance in the U.S., with nearly $2.4 trillion in active policies. Before wealth passes from baby boomers to the next generations, a substantial portion will first transfer to surviving spouses within that same generation, Gerend explained.
“There’s going to be a significant transfer across spouses first,” he said. “And so then you think about what is the time period when Gen X and Millennials will be on the other end of that inheritance, it’s more complicated than how people are commonly talking about it.”
The notion of a seismic transfer of wealth comes as Americans are facing mounting financial stress and a rolling series of shocks, said Gerend.
“It’s crazy out there and people are really anxious,” he said. First there was Covid, then “inflation and tariffs and the market and all of these things.”
Anxiety is elevated for a specific reason in Gerend’s view.
“People appreciate they’re more responsible for their own financial futures than they’ve ever been,” he said. “Employers are important, the government is important, but fundamentally people are really responsible for their own financial security for themselves and for their families all the way through their retirements, which today could last decades.”
Data points show a bleak outlook.
“People aren’t saving enough for retirement,” said Gerend. “They don’t have the protection products they need. They, by and large, don’t have advisors or they don’t have financial plans or not enough people do.”
For younger generations, this means the challenges are compounding. Gerend pointed to “lots of student debt,” “really daunting” housing affordability issues, and the psychological remnants of the 2008 Financial Crisis, widespread lack of trust in institutions including Wall Street, government, business and insurance. The stakes extend beyond the balance in your bank account, he added.
“People who are financially anxious actually suffer in all areas of their life,” Gerend said, “relationships, jobs, and health.”
Therefore, the Great Wealth Transfer offers a soothing narrative, but Gerend said Northwestern Mutual sees it as a huge opportunity to build relationships across generations so that families know when wealth will change hands. He said financial planners and firms should be prepared to build relationships—or risk losing clients if there isn’t one—when inheritance takes place. If they don’t, younger clients are likely to quickly seek out providers that can better meet their needs, he said.
Gerend said the focus currently at Northwestern Mutual is on building multi-generational advisory teams. The teams themselves increasingly span generations, with Gen X and Millennial advisors working alongside baby boomer advisors to mirror the family structures they increasingly serve. The advisors are offering financial education to clients’ children, and working to establish connections with grandchildren, he said.
And one of the significant shifts that has been an outgrowth of the pending generational wealth transfer that Gerend has observed is a burgeoning openness around family finances and expectations.
Talking about money has sometimes been taboo for families, but frank discussions about financial situations are happening more freely. Plus, more transparency remedies the historical problem of surviving spouses or heirs who had no understanding as to what they were inheriting or how to manage it, he said.
“Instead of seeing this as an event, the opportunity is to view it as a multi-generational relationship where you’re helping the family meet their financial goals over time,” said Gerend.